Breonna Taylor. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. George Floyd. The list of names goes on and on and on. They are US citizens killed by the police. They are all Black. And those two facts are inextricably linked. In this episode of Big World, SIS professor Cathy Schneider joins us to discuss racial profiling and police violence.

Professor Schneider explains how ethnic, racial, and religious minorities are policed differently than other groups in the US (1:28) and why Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people are more likely to be victims of police violence (5:59). She also discusses whether other countries have grappled with the degree of police violence seen in the US (8:56).

Why did the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spark anger and mass protests around the world (14:50)? What does defunding or abolishing the police actually mean (18:15)? Professor Schneider answers these questions and describes the kinds of reforms that can effectively be enacted to allow the public to hold police accountable for misconduct (21:26).

During our “Take Five” segment, Professor Schneider shares the first five things she would do to reform policing in the United States (10:53).